Ao: Léo (Trial)

Born and raised in the neighbourhood of Arrentela, Seixal, and based in Lisbon, Herlander is an artist-performer who rewrites the rules of standard popular music. His music verges on the anti-pop, diving into a lake without genres, voices that harmonise with each other and particular sounds that sit apart in one room. He made his debut with the experimental EP “199” in 2018, after which he independently released a handful of singles and performed at iconic venues and festivals such as ZDB, Lux, Maus Hábitos and Iminente.

At the invitation of BoCA, he is now proposing a new performance project that wanders through the different phases of a person’s life and identity: birth, the now, the theft of innocence, the internal struggle and the “hyper-awareness of self”. In “Ao: Léo (Trial)”, a kind of theatrical concert – created and conceptualised with the visual collaboration of Eloïse Grace Winter and Rafael de Oliveira –, Herlander seeks to rediscover what is lost on the road to coming of age, as we conform and adjust to the movement and rhythm of the world. A work that takes us on an inward journey in search of our nameless origin and essence.